If Poatan loses to Ankalaev, should there be an immediate rematch?

[McSpikes]

If Poatan were to lose he would move up to HW

 

[jeff7b9]

Only if controversial.

If the champ is soundly beaten, we don't need to have "you need to beat the champ" twice in place. I don't like that shit really ever but especially in the case where the champ doesn't have a monumental amount of successful defenses.

I think Poatan is going to knock this dude out, but if not and Ank wins fair and square then good for him.


Alex has 3 title defenses. Imo that should roughly get you a #1 contender fight if you lose your belt fair and square (while champ defends against next challenger) . If you and the new champ both win your respective fights, then run it back.

MAYBE if the champ has 5+ successful defenses, then you could argue ok champ might have had an off night and deservse the get back... and again, ideally this is just when the flight was competitive enough to justify that the outcome could go the other way. If the champ get smoked, they should get in line, perhaps not the end of the line, but they shouldn't skip the line.

 

[Ghostoftheville]

This is the correct answer. When was the last time we had a fighter defend 3 times in a calendar year?

Usman in '21
Johnson in '13
Frank Shamrock and Matt Hughes back in the day. But that just tells us how rare it is.

 

[JKS]

Who else has a claim to the title if asked loses?
The only name that shows up in my head is Jan. I wouldn't mind seeing Alex vs Jan 2 for the next 205 title fight since Ank has Ramadan coming up and probably needs 6-9 months to be ready for a title defense.


Or feed him to Tom at that point

Carlos Ulberg, 7 fight win streak and is fighting Jan next. If he wins, he's the legit next contender at LHW.

 

[CombatSports55]

Depends. If Ank goes in there and lays on top of Pereira for 25 minutes he would probably opt to go to Heavyweight instead.

If Ank catches him with some Hail Mary shot then yes, rematch. He would deserve it based on how dominate he was and what he did for the company 2024.

 

[Kevster]

Think he prob moves up win or lose tbh.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Normally I'd say no, But with Jiri kinda being the CLEAR next in line and Alex having beaten him twice its not sensible for jiri to jump ahead of alex. If jiri had only one loss to alex I'd say no for certain he shouldn't. there is also ulberg vs jan winner Jiri can fight if they go the rematch route. all combinations of Jiri/Jan/Ulberg are fresh match ups.

So basically rematching alex and Magomed, saves us from other rematches. So basically, how do you like your rematches?

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

if pereira loses dominantly or gets brutally finished then Jiri vs Ankalaev would be better, if it's a close decision then it should be a rematch

 

[AmonTobin]

If it’s as close a fight as DuPlessis-Strickland 1, I’d say 100% yes.

 

[volcom5]

I’m against immediate rematches in general, unless it’s controversial or draw. But Pereira has shown and went above your average champion, he fights often, doesn’t complain, always in exciting bouts and fights anyone they put in front of him even though some haters claim he is ducking Ankalaev & he practically saved ‘24, plus he’s one of the UFC biggest stars so I wouldn’t care too much if he gets immediate rematch.